Take the colour test that less than 1% of people can ace
How good is your perception of colour, and does being a photographer give you a better ability to differentiate between shades and tones than John Q Public? This new test might just help you decide.
UK contact lens retailer Lensstore has created a test to find out how well people differentiate between shades of colour, and less than 1% of the 2,000 people tested so far have been to achieve a perfect score.
Colour perception depends on several factors, including colour vocabulary, home country, and languages spoken.
The test consists of 10 colour-related questions, such as asking the user to select the lightest shade of blue from four options. 2,000 people were run through the test to find out which demographics perform best. The average score was 6 out of 10 correct answers.
You can try the test for yourself below, or click here.
The most common score was 6 out of 10 right answers with 24.1% of respondents getting this result:
- 0 right answers: 0.2% of respondents got this result
- 1 right answer, 0.3%
- 2 right answers, 2.2%
- 3 right answers, 7.4%
- 4 right answers, 13.7%
- 5 right answers, 23.4%
- 6 right answers, 24.1%
- 7 right answers, 17.4%
- 8 right answers, 9.1%
- 9 right answers, 2.0%
- 10 right answers, 0.2%
Women scored 57.7% on average, compared to 53.8% for men, and colour perception peaks between the ages of 31 and 35, then declines with age.
| Age | Female | Male |
| 18 - 24 | 58.8% | 54.1% |
| 25 - 30 | 58.3% | 52.2% |
| 31 - 35 | 59.4% | 60.5% |
| 36 - 40 | 57.3% | 53.1% |
| 41 - 45 | 58.6% | 56.3% |
| 46 - 50 | 58.1% | 56.6% |
| 51 - 55 | 56.1% | 55.1% |
| 56 - 60 | 56.6% | 53.5% |
| 61 - 65 | 55.6% | 52.5% |
| 66 - 70 | 51.4% | 54.3% |
| 71 - 75 | 52.5% | 53.5% |
| 76 - 80 | 30.0% | 46.8% |
| 81 - 89 | 35.0% | 41.1% |
Interestingly, the more languages you speak, the better your colour perception, with people who speak three languages, in addition to their mother tongue, scored the highest on average with 60%.
- 1 additional language: 53.8%
- 2 additional languages: 57.4%
- 3 additional languages: 60.0%
“The way we talk about color plays an important role in how we perceive it," says the company. "English didn’t have a word for ‘orange’ until two centuries after the fruit of the same name arrived in Europe. Before then, the color was called ‘yellow-red.’